EEOC Enforcing Permitted Hiring Practices

The main aim of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is to stop hiring discrimination in its tracks.

Comprehensive background screening companies must be well-versed in what can and cannot be reported in order to best protect applicant rights, but this is only half of the story.

When screening information is used in compliance with the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and is used in conjunction with sound, well-established hiring policy, companies can have their ducks in a row if discrimination charges are ever an issue in the future.

One the roles of the EEOC is to identify discriminatory practices that may be occurring during the employment process by maintaining a close watch on company pre-employment practices throughout the United States. NationSearch is devoted to upholding the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) in providing comprehensive background screening to our clients—the FCRA is one of the main guidelines used by the EEOC when examining hiring criteria and the appropriate use of comprehensive background screening information.

NationSearch strives to pass on all the most important and relevant information to our clients—when it comes to selecting applicants and making these important hiring decisions, the overall impact is far more reaching than it ever has been in the past. A company’s hiring policies and procedures should be reviewed and reassessed on a regular basis to ensure up-to-date compliance with the frequently modified FCRA, state-specific laws, and employment laws on the national level. For instance, Colorado employers must be aware that arrest records housed by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI) are not FCRA-compliant when used to fill a position. Because of the “innocent until proven guilty” standard of criminal conviction, companies that use these records to determine applicant eligibility are in violation of their applicants’ rights.

The stipulations regarding overall usage of background screening information during pre-employment are only becoming more specific over time. Searches must be geared toward the position an applicant is applying for, and any adverse information returned must also be relevant to the position being applied for. Employers must also adhere to certain timeframes for adverse information to have taken place. Depending on the company’s location (state-wise) and the overall position being applied for, search scopes must not exceed reasonable timeframes.

When an appropriate decision to deny employment is made and based in any way on adverse information found during the background screen, NationSearch helps clients by facilitating the Notice of Pre-Adverse Action / Notice of Adverse Action procedure. These are designed to provide applicants with the adverse information found, to allow applicants time to dispute results, and for companies to finalize the decision to deny employment. This way, NationSearch helps clients stay on top of this mandatory process while helping to protect clients and their applicants from discriminatory employment practice.